Just realized the blank wall in my dentist's waiting room in Boise is doing more work than any gallery I've been to | Blank Wall Art - The Community Guide
Just realized the blank wall in my dentist's waiting room in Boise is doing more work than any gallery I've been to
I was sitting in the waiting room at a dentist office in Boise last Tuesday, 20 minutes early for a cleaning, and I could not stop staring at this one empty wall. It was painted a warm off white, and the only thing on it was a single strip of reclaimed barn wood about 6 feet long, hung at eye level with nothing else around it. No frames, no family photos, no motivational poster about flossing. I counted 4 other walls in that room and all of them had stuff on them, but that bare one with just the wood plank was the one my eyes kept going back to. It made the room feel calm instead of cluttered, which is the opposite of what I would have guessed. Now I'm looking at the 9 foot wall in my dining room and wondering if I've been overthinking it this whole time. Has anyone here tried the one simple piece on a big wall thing, and did it feel empty or just right after a few weeks?
Oh man, that barn wood story got me. Here's the thing nobody's said yet: it's not really about the single piece, it's about the empty space around it. Your eye needs somewhere to rest, and when a wall has one thing on it, that one thing gets all the attention instead of fighting ten other things for it. I did this in my hallway with one big old mirror and honestly the first week I kept thinking something was missing, like I forgot to finish decorating. By week three I loved it and now when I walk into rooms with busy walls they feel loud to me. Your dining room might feel bare at first but give it a few weeks before you add anything else, that's my two cents anyway.